Mar

The Wizard of (H)Oz(ing)

Meet Shai Chester. Before last Thursday, he was just like any other normal Columbia sophomore, probably filling his head with lofty dreams of Spring Break lasting forever and the what-ifs of being able to use Flex at Halal carts.

Until the fate of the world was placed into his hands.

Well, okay, not THE world. But your world—the housing lottery, that is. Shai was approached late last week while meandering around the main quad. Housing officials asked him to be one of two students to participate in the random generation of the 2011 lottery numbers. According to Shai, the housing powers that be “mentioned they were trying to make housing more transparent” this year by involving students in the process. Their role included hearing a full explanation of the housing lottery, and being asked to generate the numbers on a computer program.